Why didn't the Ming Empire inherit the territory of the Yuan Dynasty?

As the last Han Dynasty in the feudal era, the Ming Dynasty made brilliant achievements. The founding army of the Ming Dynasty swept across the north, terrorized the desert and feared the Mongols. However, the territory of the Ming Dynasty was much smaller than that of the Yuan Dynasty, which made many people feel sorry.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty actually controlled more land than the Yuan Dynasty. However, a large area of land outside the customs was not included in the Daming territory, which had a lot to do with the dual imperial nature of the Yuan Dynasty.

Dual empire

The Yuan Dynasty established by Kublai Khan was not only the main continuation and patriarch of the Mongolian Empire, but also entered the sequence of the Central Plains Dynasty because of the implementation of the "Chinese law".

To the south of the Great Wall, the politics of the Yuan Dynasty reflected the mutual infiltration of Mongolian and Chinese cultures. Although the Yuan Dynasty suppressed the Han people, due to the huge population base of the Han people, strong assimilation ability to the Chinese culture and high compatibility between the Huaxia system and the farming economy, neither Mongolia nor Semu law could effectively govern the vast land of the Han people.

Therefore, in agricultural areas, the Yuan Dynasty had to rely on the Han people to maintain their original way of life, and the gentry of the Han people exerted great influence at the grassroots level.

Today, the population distribution in the north and south of the Great Wall.

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In order to win over feudal nobles and literati, Kublai Khan built the Confucius Temple in Beijing.

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However, as far as the area north of the Great Wall is concerned, due to the limitation of 400 mm isohyet, the main economic model is nomadic economy. The Mongolians who stayed in the Mongolian plateau kept their original lifestyle and customs, and were completely unaffected by the Han nationality. There has been a great rift between the north and the south. Thus, Yuan Jun had a dual identity-the emperor of the Central Plains Dynasty and the Great Khan of the Mongolian Empire.

Due to the division of the Mongolian Empire, the Yuan Dynasty only owned a small part of the Western Region, and most of the Western Region was occupied by the Chahetai khanate. This makes the cultural area of Semu people in Yuan Dynasty limited, which is not enough to be discussed as a monism comparable to that of Central Plains.

The embarrassment of Ming dynasty

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, I really hope to inherit all the territory of the Yuan Empire. In order to win over the Mongols, Zhu Yuanzhang declared that "the Hu Han family used to be dominated by Hu Jun; Recently, Hu Hanshi's family, Daming dominated ",recognized the legitimacy of the Yuan Dynasty. In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang hated the Yuan Dynasty. In his gift to North Korea, he claimed that "Yuan was not my kind, and he had been in China for more than a hundred years, and he was tired of her lewdness and committed suicide". He recognized its legitimacy because of political needs and hoped to inherit Yuan's dual empire.

So, is Zhu Yuanzhang's United front work effective?

During the Yuan Dynasty, 400,000 households were stationed in the Central Plains. Due to Zhu Yuanzhang's appeasement policy, 360,000 households stayed in the Central Plains. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered them to wear Hanfu and learn agriculture with Chinese characters. They intermarried with the Han people, so the two million Mongols gradually merged into the Han people. The appeasement and preferential treatment of the Mongols in the mainland in the Ming Dynasty, coupled with the fact that the Ming army went out of the fortress to attack the Mongols on the grassland, also made many Mongols on the Mongolian Plateau surrender quickly and entered the Han Dynasty and merged into the Han system.

However, the vast majority of Mongols on the grassland still refused to accept the rule of the Ming Dynasty and chose to remain loyal to the Great Khan of the Northern Yuan Dynasty. This is not just because The Ming dynasty emperors has no title of Khan.

The Tang Dynasty also tried to establish a dual empire, and Li Shimin was called "Tiankhan" by nomadic people. However, the rule of Saibei established by military deterrence, political netting and marriage in the Tang Dynasty was not stable. In the third year of Zhenguan (629), the eastern Turks destroyed the Tang Dynasty, and after the first year of Yongchun (682), the Turks returned to China, which has been controlled by * * * for more than 60 years. Although the Xuanzong dynasty destroyed the post-Turkic, the hegemony of the grassland was still occupied by the Uighur khanate.

The Mongolian Plateau is extremely vast, covering an area of 2 million square kilometers, almost equivalent to the Northern Han Dynasty south of the Great Wall. The precipitation is scarce and the environment is bad, which is not suitable for farming. The migration of nomadic people is doomed to their restless characteristics, which is much more unruly than the settled farmers.

Before the invention of machine guns and motor vehicles, the Central Plains dynasty had to face enormous logistical pressure when it sent troops to the Mongolian Plateau, which was called "the tyranny of distance". Qin Shihuang conquered the Huns, "moving to the North River at a speed of 30 minutes, resulting in one stone", and six stones and four fights an hour, with a transfer efficiency of 192.

Nomadic horses are rich in reserves and have strong mobility, so they are extremely difficult to catch on the vast plateau. Because Genghis Khan integrated many nomadic peoples on the Mongolian plateau into Mongolian tribes in a broad sense, it was more difficult for the Ming Dynasty to divide and rule nomadic tribes than for the Tang Dynasty. The Yuan and Qing Dynasties gave the Mongols a higher status than the Han people and sent a lot of materials to win over the herdsmen, which was impossible for the Ming Dynasty established by the Han people.

Therefore, although Zhu Yuanzhang's United front work has played a certain role, it still treats the symptoms rather than the root cause. Even carrots and sticks can't take away the prestige of the Kim family on the grassland, and can't subdue the unruly and wandering Mongolian people.

Daming's Control of Northeast China

In the famous map drawn by Mr. Tan Qixiang, the Ming Dynasty inherited Yuan's overall control over Northeast China and Tibet, and this version of the map had great influence. However, foreigners don't admit that their maps of the Ming Dynasty often only include Guanzhong and Liaodong. There are also many people in China who agree with foreigners that the Ming Dynasty was in the north of Liaodong side wall, and Tibet was short of soldiers. They don't think that it controlled the Northeast and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Is that so?

Note in Yongning Temple Monument: "In the spring of the ninth year of Yongle (14 1 1), the officers of the task force also lost their jobs, leading more than 1,000 officers and men, and 25 huge ships returned to China to set up the slave labor headquarters. "

The Ming Dynasty sent eunuchs to outer Manchuria for many times as imperial eunuchs to inspect Nuergandusi. In the 11th year of Yongle (14 13), Yongning Temple was built in Nurgan City (called Temple Street in Qing Dynasty, also called Temple Village, now Nikolayevsk, Russia) during the third inspection.

From the seventh year of Xuande (1432) to the eighth year of Xuande (1433), he also went to Nurgandus for the ninth and tenth time, repaired Yongning Temple destroyed by local natives, set up Xuande monument, carved the inscription "Rebuild Yongning Temple", and told the natives that Yongning Temple had never been destroyed by local people, even though

In the 13th year of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty (1808), when the Japanese Imperial Palace was hidden in the ruins of Yongning Temple, it was also seen that "many foreigners came here, sown rice grains and grass seeds in the river, and worshipped the stone tablet from afar", and the local people revered the stone tablet of Yongning Temple. It was not until Russia seized outer Manchuria that the monument of Yongning Temple was demolished.

Daming has always maintained effective control over Jianzhou Jurchen, Haixi Jurchen and barbarian Jurchen. On the one hand, imperial edicts issued by the Ming Dynasty played a key role in trade, reflecting political and economic control. On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty also attached importance to the military control of the various parts of Jurchen. For example, Li Manzhu and Dong Shan, the Jurchen people in Jianzhou, were dealt a fatal blow by Chenghua Plough House. Later, Wang Gao rebelled against the Ming Dynasty and was put down by Li Pingding.

However, in the Ming Dynasty, it was quite effective to rule Jurchen by sealing officials and setting guards, and it was not until the rise of Nurhachi in the late Ming Dynasty that the control system collapsed. In addition, the Ming Dynasty also extensively built a post road system, which went deep into the hinterland of Northeast China to control the Jurchen.

Daming's control over Tibet

The control of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau cannot be discussed by stationing troops. A typical feature of Tibet is its high terrain, which is difficult for troops to occupy. Since the Yuan Dynasty, the key for the Central Plains Dynasty to control Tibet was to rely on imported materials and provide financial subsidies to Tibet through rewards and trade. There was no garrison in Tibet during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and Tibet was still unwilling to be encouraged by the British to separate, precisely because of its economic dependence on the mainland.

The Ming government used Xifan people's dependence on tea to control tea, which made Xifan subject to the central dynasty's policy of "controlling fans with tea".

The gold medal symbols used in the official tea-horse trade in the Ming Dynasty have the word "symbol" on the front and the seal script of "imperial edict, if it is combined, it will be issued, if it is not believed, it will be cut" on the back, which is issued every three years. At that time, the loyal ministers of the Ming dynasty will go deep into the ministries of Xifan to trade and claim sovereignty.

The notice of "Refusing to Arrest the Horse" collected by Qinghai Provincial Archives clearly stated-"Xifan is the territory of Emperor Daming, and all the people are the sons of Emperor Daming. Emperor Daming was born in Fan Er Cha Ze, but Chaze didn't die. Send him to be an official every year, give him tea in time, save his life and reward him. Your descendants, thanks to our country, are really in harmony with heaven and earth. They should serve faithfully, which will always be an obstacle ... The merger of the Han family made Lu unable to stay in the West Sea, so we have no worries and we will always enjoy happiness. "

The armed missions of the Ming Dynasty visited the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau many times and rewarded them for declaring sovereignty.

Biography of Hou Xianchuan in Ming Dynasty: In February of the second year of Xuande, he returned to various countries, including Uszang, Bi Li Gongwa, Lingzang and Sidakang. Robbed by bandits on the way, the officers and men fought hard and gained a lot. Also in North Korea, more than 460 people were rewarded for their achievements.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, eunuch Hou Xian sent a reward to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and defeated the local armed forces that refused to accept the Ming Dynasty, showing the sovereignty of the Ming Dynasty over Tibet.

Religious leaders in all parts of Tibet, large and small, were recognized and appointed by the Ming government. The management mode of Tibet in the Ming Dynasty was "if there is something, it will not be cured, but many people will build it". On the one hand, a health center system has been established, which enables local forces in Tibet to extensively build post roads and communicate Tibetan areas with the mainland. On the other hand, the various factions of Tibetan Buddhism divide and rule, and establish a system of three major kings plus five major religious kings. Important religious leaders in Tibet are often appointed as national teachers and called to give lectures in Mingdu, which is respected.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty established Song Panwei on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and sent troops to control Tibet remotely. If Tibet needs intervention, they can send troops, just as Hou Xian led the armed forces into Tibet. All this proves that the Ming Dynasty had control over Tibet.

Ming dynasty strengthened its control over southwest China.

Compared with the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty greatly strengthened its control over the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Of course, the Yunnan-Guizhou region has always been a semi-independent political entity, which has been continuously digested throughout the dynasties. For example, the Han Dynasty seems to be a vast country, but there are various semi-independent political entities that refuse to obey the kingly way, and Huaxia. com has been seriously broken. In the subsequent dynasties, these fault areas were gradually digested.

In Guizhou, during the Ming Dynasty, the four chieftains of Bozhou Yang, Shuixi 'an, Shuidong Song and Sizhou Tian were all eliminated. From the state of "borrowing the first line of Yunnan to lead the future, and everyone outside the first line knows it", Guizhou has become an area that the court can basically control.

During the Yuan Dynasty, Yunnan was governed mainly by chieftain, and its population was mostly indigenous. After the Ming Dynasty captured Yunnan, it defeated the kingdom of Luchuan and extended to the northern part of Myanmar, whose Yunnan province was larger than the country inherited by the Yuan Dynasty. Later, in Yunnan, on the one hand, the Ming Dynasty cut off the chieftain, changed the land and returned to the country, on the other hand, it carried out unprecedented immigration, established health clinics, stationed troops to open up wasteland, increased the proportion of the Han population in Yunnan, popularized education and popularized Wang Huajiao. The Confucian Temple and the imperial examination system made Yunnan and the mainland have the same beliefs. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the proportion of Han population in Yunnan reached more than 50%.

After the governance of the Ming Dynasty, Yunnan and Guizhou were able to get rid of the shackles of most areas and enter the ranks of the eighteen provinces in the Han Dynasty.

summary

The concept of territory in ancient and modern times is not completely consistent, and it is not objective to evaluate the territorial policies of various dynasties only by looking at the size of the area. Land that cannot be firmly controlled is often easily lost, and the management of past dynasties has laid the foundation for our territory today.